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Re: PDP-8 advertising

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On 2016-06-15, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> Within computer geekdom, getting an entry level job in an IBM-
> mainframe computer room was 'ok', but getting a job working on a PDP
> was supercool.
>
> (From my own personal perspective, when I was a kid, IBM mainframe 
> computer sites were fascinating, but tended to be a bit stodgy,
> everyone was always in a tie and jacket, talked in professional
> soft voices, very polished and proper atmosphere.  In contrast, a
> PDP computer room was far more informal.

I worked in small mainframe shops, and always had a bit of DEC envy.
The mainframe mindset was batch jobs, fixed-length records, ISAM, and
protocols designed for sending files across the country, not messages
across the room.  Serial port handling was very complicated, and the
software interfaces made damned sure you didn't forget it.  Even when
I was one of the so-called experts at the local Univac branch office,
setting up a new customer's terminal network consisted of copying an
existing configuration and tweaking it as required.  I only ever met
one person who really understood OS/3's ICAM (Integrated Communications
Access Method) - we flew him in from Montreal a couple of times when
we had to do something out of the ordinary.  On one such occasion,
after we got a customer's 90/30 to talk to their IBM System/38, we
were shooting the bull at the end of the day, and this fellow was
scrambling and unscrambling a Rubik's cube while keeping up his end
of the conversation.  That's the kind of mind it took to understand
that stuff.

Minis, on the other hand, had much simpler file formats, and
sending or receiving a few bytes through a serial port was trivial.
I remember how much fun it was when I set up my IMSAI, and could do
terminal I/O by simply toggling in a dozen instructions through the
front panel.  Porting Adventure and Dungeon to the mainframe was
pretty hairy, especially the terminal I/O part.

-- 
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PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-05-23 16:37 -0700
  Re: PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-14 13:21 -0700
    Re: PDP-8 advertising Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-14 21:01 +0000
      Re: PDP-8 advertising jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-06-15 13:05 +0000
        Re: PDP-8 advertising Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-15 16:11 +0000
    Re: PDP-8 advertising "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-14 23:18 +0100
      Re: PDP-8 advertising Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-15 12:19 -0700
        Re: PDP-8 advertising "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-15 21:09 +0100
          Re: PDP-8 advertising Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-15 18:03 -0700
    Re: PDP-8 advertising Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-15 08:27 -0400
    Re: PDP-8 advertising Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-15 12:23 -0700
      Re: PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-15 13:32 -0700
        Re: PDP-8 advertising Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-06-15 21:17 +0000
          Re: PDP-8 advertising Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-06-15 15:00 -0700
        Re: PDP-8 advertising "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-15 22:24 +0100
          Re: PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-16 13:29 -0700
        Re: PDP-8 advertising jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-06-16 12:30 +0000
          Re: PDP-8 advertising usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2016-06-17 07:37 +0000
            Re: PDP-8 advertising Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-17 08:27 +0000
              Re: PDP-8 advertising Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-17 08:31 +0000
        Re: PDP-8 advertising scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2016-06-16 12:48 +0000
        Re: PDP-8 advertising usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2016-06-17 03:37 +0000
          Re: PDP-8 advertising Bob Eager <news0006@eager.cx> - 2016-06-17 07:40 +0000
            Re: PDP-8 advertising Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-17 12:32 -0400
              Re: PDP-8 advertising "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-06-18 09:41 -0500
                Re: PDP-8 advertising Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-18 15:34 -0400
                Re: PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-18 13:25 -0700
          Re: PDP-8 advertising jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-06-17 12:53 +0000
            Re: PDP-8 advertising usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2016-06-18 07:10 +0000
              Re: PDP-8 advertising barrym95838@yahoo.com - 2016-06-18 01:07 -0700
    Re: PDP-8 advertising Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2016-06-16 10:03 -0400
      Re: PDP-8 advertising hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-16 13:33 -0700
        Re: PDP-8 advertising Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2016-06-16 17:24 -0400
        Re: PDP-8 advertising Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-16 18:28 -0400

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